ABSTRACT
Historically, the concept o f temperament has its roots in age-old attempts to relate individual differences in behavioral styles to differences in physiology (Rothbart, in press). Such attempts to relate behavior to physiology have often resulted in placement of the temperament construct on the nature side of naturenurture equations. In this chapter, recent work on the physiological correlates of infant emotional temperament is reviewed. However, rather than adopting the view that emotional temperament is constrained or directed by inborn physiologi cal characteristics and thus that the causal arrow runs from physiology to behav ior, in what follows a psychobiological orientation is maintained. Psychobiology is closely aligned with systems theory (Cairns, 1979). Accordingly, the psycho biologist attempts to understand the organism as a whole and not as a functioning gene machine nor as an entity shaped by external forces. Physiological, behav ioral, and social systems are viewed as open systems that interact dynamically in the process of maintaining the integrity of the organism. From this perspective, the study of physiology-temperament relations is the study of dynamic interac tions among systems.
